1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a product search apparatus, a product search method, and a product search system that enable a consumer to smoothly perform the decision of purchase of a plurality of products.
2. Description of the Related Art
A technology for searching for a similar image of which the impression felt by a person is substantially the same as that of a specific image from a database when the specific image is selected from an illustrated image menu by a user is conventionally known.
JP1996-249353A (JP-H08-249353A) discloses a configuration in which a correlation between a sensibility feature amount used to identify an impression felt from any image by a designer and a physical feature amount extracted through calculation from an image processing result is obtained in advance using a statistical scheme, and a spatial distance (Euclidean distance) between a sensibility feature amount of an input image and a sensibility feature amount of a registered image is obtained for image search in image search at the time of designing. Specifically, in a coordinate space consisting of coordinate axes (for example, a hard/soft axis and a warm/cool axis) of the sensibility feature amount, a center point of image search is obtained based on a line segment determined by a coordinate position of a specific similar designated image designated from an illustrated image menu by a user and a coordinate position of a specific dissimilar designated image, and n registered images with a short spatial distance from the center point are searched for from a database in an order from the registered images with the shortest spatial distance. Accordingly, even in a case in which there are no images perfectly matching with an image desired to be searched for in an illustrated image menu or in a case in which a small variation such as a coloring change or a pattern change has been applied to illustrated images, an image of which the impression felt by a person is substantially the same as that of the specific image designated by the user can be accurately searched for and displayed.
JP1997-114853A (JP-H09-114853A) discloses a configuration in which a plurality of registered images are prestored as pattern samples together with physical feature amounts in a database, and if a sensibility word (for example, “sharper”) determining a shift rule for a reference coordinate position is indicated and input by a user in a coordinate space consisting of coordinate axes (for example, an axis of a thickness of a line, an axis of a degree of left-right symmetry, and an axis of a density of a space) of the physical feature amounts in image search at the time of designing, a shift corresponding to the input sensibility word (for example, a shift to a coordinate position at which a value of the thickness of the line is smaller) from a reference coordinate position corresponding to the physical feature amount of a specific image is performed, and an image with a short spatial distance around the shifted reference coordinate position is searched for from a database. Accordingly, an image of which the impression felt by a person is substantially the same as that of the specific image designated by the user can be accurately searched for and displayed.